Fifteen, the first album from the collective trio of saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, pianist Vijay Iyer, and drummer Dafnis Prieto, is also the label debut for all three musicians. The record takes its name from the number of years the trio has been performing together—first at a series of benefits for the New York City club the Jazz Gallery, a club they have since played at periodically, and then around the US and internationally. It comprises three compositions by Threadgill and Iyer and two by Prieto. “This is a brilliant set that plays to the trio’s formidable strengths,” the Guardian exclaims of its Jazz Album of the Month. “Hearteningly delightful contemporary music-making.”
Natalie Merchant’s Cabinet of Wonder—a digital collection of 17 songs and accompanying videos from her collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children’s Theatre—reimagines Mother Goose and her rhymes for a new generation of young children through modern interpretations of the classic children’s canon and three originals by Merchant—performed by her, musicians from the CSO, and special guests. The project represents three years of behind-the-scenes work among its collaborators and the culmination of Merchant’s four decades of involvement in children’s arts and education.
Laurie Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob, whose new triple-LP / double-CD live album Let X=X was released earlier this year on Nonesuch, have shared a live performance video of her song “Language Is a Virus,” filmed at the Umbria Jazz Festival last month. They tour California and Chicago next month.
Jeff Parker and ETA IVtet celebrate their new album, Happy Today, in California, at The Freight in Berkeley and The Lodge Room in LA. Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad Ensemble are in upstate NY at Chautauqua and the Skaneateles Festival, where Cécile McLorin Salvant performs too. Mary Halvorson joins Jacob Garchik in Austria. Emmylou Harris takes her European farewell tour to Norway. Gustavo Santaolalla kicks off South American Ronroco tour in Chile.
It was 40 years ago this week: Kronos Quartet’s best-selling Nonesuch debut album was released. It features music by Sculthorpe, Sallinen, Philip Glass, and Conlon Nancarrow, and Kronos’s now legendary interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” The Washington Post praised the group’s “breadth of vision” and a collection “devoted to some of the most imaginative music of our time.”
It was 25 years ago today: Laurie Anderson’s Nonesuch debut album, Life on a String, was released. The album, which Anderson co-produced with Hal Willner, includes guest appearances by Bill Frisell, Lou Reed, Van Dyke Parks, and others. “The overall tone is sparse, haunted, intimate,” says Rolling Stone. “Laurie Anderson is a singer-songwriter of crushing poignance.”
It was 20 years ago this week: The Black Keys’ Your Touch EP was released. It features the album cuts “Your Touch” and “Strange Desire” off the band’s Nonesuch debut, Magic Potion, which would be released the following month, plus a live recording of the song “Thickfreakness.”
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